Disney explains why The Acolyte was canceled after one season

A couple of decades ago, it seemed like a dream that Star Wars fans would have so many shows and movies to watch. But with the influx of projects, that means that not everything will survive…especially when they’re slapped with $180 million budgets. Thus, with a seriously lofty overhead, The Acolyte hit the chopping block, airing its final episode of eight this past July.

Commenting on the cancellation of The Acolyte, Disney Entertainment co-chair Alan Bergman said the show “wasn’t where we needed it to be given the cost structure of that title, quite frankly, to go and make a season two. So that’s the reason why we didn’t do that.”

So with The Acolyte out, how hopeful is the studio for Skeleton Crew, which is halfway through its first season? “Skeleton Crew is in process now, so we’ll see. We’ve seen some growth on that. We’ll see how that goes. As you said, the reviews have been excellent on Skeleton Crew, so we’ll have to see how that all plays out as it moves forward.” For comparison, the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes for Skeleton Crew is at a strong 80% while The Acolyte was less than a quarter of that, hitting 18%. Skeleton Crew will conclude next month.

Disney of course has plenty of other Star Wars projects in the pipeline even without the apparent burden of The Acolyte, with season two of Andor arriving in April and Ahsoka being renewed for its own sophomore outing.

And while the brand is, no singular offshoot of the Star Wars franchise is truly permanent. Viewership is obviously a key factor here, but Disney is also hoping for quality to advance the series. As Bergman added, “We’re looking at a number of additional series that are in development. We’ll see what we decide to do. As I said earlier, they have to be great, and when we’re in the position where we think we have what we want, we’re going to move forward.” No doubt Star Wars will press on despite the egg that was The Acolyte, introducing new streaming series in the ongoing efforts to see just how far they can stretch it.

What has been your favorite Star Wars TV series so far?